


the usual suspects

by naheka



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Gen, Gift Exchange
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-24
Updated: 2019-12-24
Packaged: 2021-02-26 01:27:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,295
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21945097
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/naheka/pseuds/naheka
Summary: Lena Luthor walks into her office; Alex Danvers is already there.
Relationships: Alex Danvers & Lena Luthor
Kudos: 28





	the usual suspects

**Author's Note:**

> short ~prelude~ for a case hijink ft Alex and Lena! Happy Holidays to laurenslorelai.

Alex is sitting in Lena’s office, at Lena’s desk, holding Lena’s coffee. Her hair is slicked to the side, buzzed short on the sides, and she looks tired under the smug little grin playing at the corners of her mouth. “Remember your old boarding school buddy? The girl with the dragon tattoo.”

“It’s a snake,” Lena says, stepping through the double doors and surreptitiously waving her security to stand down. She closes the doors behind her. “Or it was. No one’s heard from Veronica Sinclair in quite some time. I don’t suppose you know anything about that?”

Alex blinks, eyes wide and guileless. “Ms. Sinclair has not been charged with any crimes. Keeping tabs on her at this point would be illegal.”

“I’m sure.” Lena crosses the room to the small minibar against the wall, more decorative than functional. Even so, it’s kept fully stocked. “I hear you like whiskey.”

Alex stiffens, slightly. Then she relaxes into Lena’s chair, kicking her booted feet up onto the desktop. “I’m on duty.”

“How exhilarating.” Lena pours herself two fingers, neat. She swirls the amber liquid in the crystal tumbler, thoughtful, then sips, just barely wetting her lips and tongue. “As fun as this detente continues to be, Agent Danvers...” she trails off, arching an eyebrow. “The DEO must have better things to do than trouble a Luthor’s office.” She tilts her head. “Well. Other things to do, surely.”

Alex sighs. Her feet drop back to the floor, and she leans over the desk towards Lena, hands clasped. “Sinclair ran game with the high rollers, right? The highest rollers. You had an in with her.”

“Agent Danvers,” Lena murmurs, eyes cast down before flicking up. “Did you come here to ask a favor?”

“Hmph.” Alex purses her lips. 

Lena cups a hand gently behind one ear. “What was that, Agent?”

Alex glares, then sighs again. “Yes,” she says finally. Simply, easily. “I need a favor.”

Lena steps behind Alex, close to the floor to ceiling windows, National City spread out before her. “Is it important?”

Alex’s breath catches. She looks at Lena, eyes steady and the smudged dark circles underneath. “Yes.”

There’s only one thing that would make her so honest, so transparent about her emotion, one thing to make her come to Lena’s office and plainly ask for aid. “Supergirl,” Lena says. 

“Yes.”

Lena exhales, fingers white knuckled around the glass. Then she turns, putting it down with a heavy clunk on the desk. She leans over Alex’s shoulder, her ponytail swishing against Alex’s jacket, and presses the intercom on her phone. “Clear my week. I won’t be available.” She turns her head, just inches from Alex’s. 

Without breaking her gaze, Alex reaches out and drains Lena’s tumbler. “Let’s get to work.”

++

They convene in Kara’s apartment, meeting in her hallway. “This is your secure location?” Lena looks up and down the empty hallway. “I expected another underground bunker.”

“This,” Alex says, letting herself in with a key on her belt, the one beside her own personal keys. Lena remembers when she had one that matched. The door swings open, revealing--

Carnage. There’s no other way to describe it, clothes strewn on the floor, the furniture reduces to matchsticks. When Alex steps through her boot crunches on shards of broken glass and porcelain. “This,” Alex finishes, “is the crime scene.”

Lena picks her way through the rubble to the shattered window, the crisp winter air chilling the entire living room. There’s blood smeared on the frame. “Not hers, I imagine.”

“Don’t be so sure,” Alex says, from the kitchen. There’s an empty tranq dart in her hand, the end tipped with a green liquid. “They came prepared.”

Lena looks out the window again, the fire escape just outside, the traffic down below. “A leak in your camp.”

She hears it, the metallic click of the safety disengaging. “Or in yours.”

Lena turns; the door is closed, and Alex is standing between it and Lena, her weapon drawn and pointed at the floor. “Ah,” Lena says, and sets her purse on the couch. “I wondered why you didn’t ask earlier.”

“Look me in the eye,” Alex says, her voice flat and trembly all at once, “and tell me you had nothing to do with this.”

Lena raises her chin. This isn’t the first time she’s had a gun pointed at her, and Alex hasn’t even curled her finger around the trigger, letting it rest along the barrel. “I had nothing to do with this.”

Alex holds her gaze for another full minute, searching Lena’s face, before she exhales, and holsters her gun. “I had to ask.”

“I understand.” Lena picks up her bag. “If that’s all?”

Alex moves to block her exit. “No. I wasn’t lying, earlier. I need your connections.”

Lena sighs, a hand falling to her hip. “Agent Danvers--”

“Alex.”

“Agent Danvers,” Lena repeats, and ignores Alex’s snotty eye roll. “I’m sure I’m up to at least a third of the nefarious things you suspect I’m up to, but that one third keeps me busy enough that I’m not frequenting gambling rings and exclusive auctions.”

“But you could,” Alex presses. “If you wanted to--”

“Agent Danvers--”

“--if you asked around--”

“Alex!”

Alex stops, breathing hard. She puts her hand on her hip, on the butt of her gun, and Lena raises her hand out. 

“Hey! Take a breath.” Lena watches her do it, sucking it in and huffing it out, her hair falling out of its coif. “How long has Super--” Lena swallows, the bitter tang on her tongue, “--has Kara been missing?”

“Four days.”

Oh, Lena thinks. That would explain the nervous energy, the slightly manic twinge. “Let me make a few calls.”

“Why?” Alex accuses, jutting her chin out. “What do you care?” 

Lena drops her bag agan, exasperated. “Are you serious? _You_ came to _me_.”

“Because I thought you might have done it!”

Lena crosses her arms over her chest, giving Alex’s glare a glower of her own right back. “And?”

Alex scrubs her hands through her hair, half turning away to pace in front of the door. “And I believe that you haven’t.” She exhales, stilling long enough to catch Lena’s gaze. “I do. I believe you.”

Lena considers her. She nods once, very slightly, and drops her arms from her chest. “I’ll… go through my rolodex. So to speak.” 

Alex gives Lena a nod of her own. “Thank you.”

“Partners, then,” Lena says.

“No. I still want to know why.” Alex steps closer. “So you didn’t do it. That doesn’t mean you care if someone else did.”

She’s still holding that dart, the one with the kryptonite tip. Looking at it makes Lena feel sick, in a way she doesn’t quite understand, and she searches for words while Alex sets it aside. “I,” she starts, and then stops. She rips her gaze away to look out at the sky. “I used to watch her fly across the city.”

Some of the tension bleeds from Alex’s posture. “Well. You’ve got big windows.”

“Yes. The biggest in the city.” A smirk tugs at the corner of Lena’s mouth. “And, once in a while, if I looked long enough…” The red flutter of Supergirl’s cape, the skytrails she left behind. “I was friends with Kara, but I was friends with Supergirl too.” She frowns, sudden and fierce. “I am not so much my brother that our falling out equates a death wish.”

“Okay.” Alex tips her head back, looking at the ceiling for a brief moment before straightening again. “So. Partners.” She offers Lena her hand.

Lena takes it, and they shake. “Partners.” _For now_ she thinks, and when they leave she palms the dart off the counter and slips it into her bag.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm on tumblr @ sunspillt


End file.
